Media Watch: Game Groups = 21st Century Mixers?

The sluggish economy has media folk looking for new ways to spin the “people play games in a recession” story, and game players and business people have obliged by providing them with plenty of source material, as in this article from the Toronto Star titled “Young singles trade the bar scene for board games”:

Hostess Denise Dias, a twentysomething freelance writer, got the ball rolling for her dozen friends a couple of months ago when she invested in a Monopoly game and pulled it out after dinner. Dias didn’t grow up playing board games and thought it was a novel way to spend the evening.

“The next thing we knew it was 4 a.m. and we were still playing!” remembers Dias, whose Queen St. W. apartment has become the board game hub of her circle of friends. “Many of my friends are competitive and they find it cheap and cheerful.”

Oh, those twentysomething freelance writers – who knows what they’ll do next?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave front page coverage to a round-up of five places that offered gaming opportunities, with a tavern and a bar-and-grill mixed into more traditional groups. The fifth location, PlayDate, was the subject of a separate article on CNN.com called “Where singles go to play all sorts of games”:

“It’s not your usual bar scene where I look good, you look good, I’m scared to talk to you,” [Scott] Hayes says as he scans a giant Jenga tower for the right block to pull. “You’ll talk to anyone when you’re playing games, because you’re trying to beat them.”

Next to Hayes, [Monique] Brown watches a rambunctious game of Pictionary while a twosome fights it out with Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots nearby. Across the room, Lucas joins her friends in a game of Trouble. And on the dance floor, Imari Havard is hula-hooping with some ladies.

Havard is the co-founder of Timeless Entertainment Concepts, host of PlayDate, with Ryan Hill and Ronald Gaither.

Timeless’ mission is clear: provide a fun alternative to the typical nightlife scene for an entrance fee of just $10 per person. In other words, if you’re looking for love in all the wrong places, try a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Because nothing says love like being able to eat marbles quickly…

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